Unrelated to Beauty rant: Dodgy, much? Intomobilephones.co.uk review

Didn’t want to rant about random customer service experiences on here, but hey, I want to prevent anyone else from falling foul of using this god awful website called Intomobilephone.co.uk

Stupid me – I though I had found a great deal for my mama and placed an order 11 days ago. Entered all her card details (she was sat next to me, oh internet police!) even though she was tentative about sharing card details (I will never ever ever hear the end of this) – don’t worry I said, look at how reputable this company is!

Now – next thing that happened was a blank page, saying she needed to call the next day to check with T-Mobile about the status of the order and further checks needed to be made.

That was it. No confirmation, no emails, nothing. Just nothing.

Next day we call back to check…now, this was the moment when the penny dropped!

Here is the contact page:

See the two phone numbers – the customer care one is a cancelled line and sure enough, when you call this premium rate number, it tells you to call another number. Ok, called this number and the people who answered were…Travel Insurance Folk. Yes, really. (By the way – I have since informed them of this indescrepancy, so they may change or remove the number asap – but thank god for print screen, eh?).

So I call the sales line and luckily it wasn’t a 12 year old in his playhouse, it was an adult.

Call one to the people at intomobilephone.co.uk

“I was told to call. What’s up with the order”

“T-Mobile declined you application” (this is a mystery – my mama doesn’t owe a penny to anyone but ok, if they say so)

“Ok fine. Can you confirm nothing will be taken from my card?”

“Of course”

Next day – of COURSE there’s a £59.99 charge for the phone. We call back

“You said you wouldn’t charge me and I’ve been charged”

“Oh yes its automated”

“You said I wouldn’t be charged”

“Yes, well its automated”

“But it didn’t go to a confirmation page or a final sale page or anything – it was in limbo, unconfirmed”

At this point, I can’t tell you how close I am to calling the fraud line at her bank.

So I call back again.

“It’s a charge for a credit check”

“Why?”

“Because you need a credit check”

“It doesn’t say on the payment screen there will be a £2 charge for this” (I have always had charges quite clearly marked when buying phones in the past)

“Well, sorry, we will refund this”

“When?”

“It will be with you in 5 – 7 days”

Ok……………..

Forward EIGHT working days later – not including the weekend, just EIGHT full working days. Intomobilephone.co.uk still haven’t refunded. My mother, understandably now thinks the internet is the spawn of the devil and I will never ever live this down.

We call back. This time we speak to “Brenda” a “Team Leader” (this was her response when I asked for a manager). Ooh Brenda is hard-core so it ends in a screaming match.

It kind of went like this.

“Why has a refund not be processed when it takes 5-7 days” (Riddle me this, I usually get refunds in 3 days)

“It’s all automated”

“But it’s impossible it would take this long”

“Its automated. Did you check you bank?” (No I used my psychic powers)

It goes on and on, and all Brenda can tell me is that its AUTOMATED, don’t you know its AUTOMATED and if its AUTOMATED that means there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

I start to lose my temper as I ask her about the £2 charge too (it’s the principle, isn’t it?)

She says

“Actually we don’t get that back, we are refunding this to you out of our own pocket”

Me, in the style of a crazed woman

“SO YOU SHOULD! Where was the bit that CLEARLY that told me that I would be charged twice?”

“It’s in the Terms & Conditions”

“What, that you will charge me for a phone won’t be sent to me – surely you need to do your checks and make sure I can have the phone before just slapping on fees to my account?”

Turns out, not only am I “lucky” to get the £2 charge returned, I also have to wait “a while” to get it because the company puts these manual refunds on to a sheet to be processed and this can take “any time”.

I then also tell her about the fact the other number on her site goes to a Travel Insurance company (she sounds incredulous and slightly annoyed with me – so much so that she gets another team member to call the number to check whilst I am still there as if no company can be stupid enough to allow this to happen. Well, duh you’re company IS. And, I don’t give to sh*ts about your stupid phone number I am just pointing out its yet another reason why you are just all out unprofessional idiots!).

I get shaky, angry – Brenda keeps talking over me – did she go to call centre school 1010 – it’s called shut the f**k up and listen – and then I think what’s the point its lunch in 10 minutes

I say to our Brenda

“I will go and check again with the bank (we already did but I am going to double check and if they can’t see any returns I am going straight to the fraud department) and will be writing to Trading standards”

“Please don’t” says Brenda

Says it all, eh.

intomobilephones.co.uk are part of a larger company – which I don’t know but its clear from the way they run their site and customer services they don’t have the foggiest. Steer clear.

So in summary, here is what I got from intomobilephones.co.uk:

No phone Two charges An irate mother who will never ever let me forget about this Hives from arguing on the phone with Brenda

So here it from me girlies – if you are buying a phone, go to the BIG phone companies (I tend to go direct to the company like Orange) – Carphone warehouse etc. etc. They are all dodgy bas*ards but at least go to one where you can go into the shop and throw things at the sales assistants head.

Comments

Oh what I wouldn’t give to have been able to talk to this “Brenda” if I had been in the same situation. I sure hope you get your money back.. and that it doesn’t get stuck in limbo land. Things like this infuriate me when companies are beyond stupidity and are verging on fraud!

*bares teeth* Ridiculous! Team Leader.. of the douches, what a moron. “Please don’t!” it really does say it all, so sorry you had to go through this. Nincompoop process, i feel for your mother! (Had a similar situation, my dad was understandly infuriated with the interwebs for a while!)

Hi, Was just about to confirm a contract which sounded too good to be true with this company until I came across your wee testimonial lol Thanks so much for posting this as you have potentially saved me, what seems, a great deal of unnecessary stress 🙂

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Even 7 months on your rant is doing good work! I was about to buy a phone for my son from this company but stumbled across your posting (THANK GOODNESS), now I won’t touch them with the preverbial barge pole.

God it was horrible at the time talking to the snotty woman on the phone who ended up shouting at me! Don’t bother, if you are going to buy online go direct to the phone company or at least use a place where u can go instore to complain if necessary (ie. phones 4 u) x

after reading all the neg sides about into mobile phones i was very put off getting a phone from this compamy.but after looking on the net they are the cheapest by miles,so i went a head and placed my order for a samsung galaxys £20.42 a month 300mins 300texts unlimited internet (flex booster).to my relief i was emailed straght away to say order was been processed.emailed me again the next day with tracking number and the phone arrived the day after that.no problems what so ever!dont be put off by neg reveiw……….